A LA
Timesreport set
internet surfers on red alert that their favorite TV episode source
Hulu might soon be switching to a subscription
service, billing its customers $9.99 a month. That fee
seemed pretty steep, when compared to cable offerings and brought the
status of the service into question.

Fortunately, the date in
question ("as soon as May 24") is fast approaching and
there seems to be no sign of a subscription service. According
toAll
Things Digital's
Peter Kafka, the parties involved (News Corp.’s Fox, Disney’s
ABC, and GE’s NBC) may still be working to reach an agreement on
the nature of the subscription service and are unready to deploy the
service.

Kafka, though, says that the studios appear to agree
that free content would continue to be offered in its current form,
the subscription would only provide access to more episodes.
That's great news for worried Hulu fans everywhere, as it's always
good when companies look to add more services
a fee, not take existing services away.

The premium service
would likely come with access to Hulu on the iPad or iPhone, via free
apps. Hulu has been cooking
up these apps for some time now, but they have seen multiple
delays. It is unclear whether these delays stemmed from
internal issues or navigating the tricky waters of Apple's App Store
policies.

The Hulu subscription service will likely land in
June or July at the soonest. The latest info casts the move in a whole new
light, changing it from a risky maneuver, to another smart move for a
terrific website that recently
became profitable.

"If they're going to pirate somebody, we want it to be us rather than somebody else." -- Microsoft Business Group President Jeff Raikes